Return to the Stars: Evidence for the Impossible by Erich von Däniken Page A
Authors: Erich von Däniken
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prehistoric balls and all the pictures of them in reliefs and on cave walls are directly linked with the visit of unknown intelligences, of intelligences who landed on our planet in a ball. They already knew and had proved that the sphere is the most suitable shape for interstellar space flights. .
One day in the not too distant future the long journey back to the stars will start from our planet, and probably in spherical space-craft, because the sphere is the most natural of all shapes for the flight into the universe.
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6 - The Science-Fiction Of Yesterday Is Tomorrow's Reality
In Chariots of the Gods? I wrote a chapter in which I predicted a mass exodus of people from our planet to another heavenly body. I thought that this fantastic idea of mine was one way of easing the murderous population explosion, from which there seems to be no escape. In the end I cut this vision of the future out of my manuscript before it went to the printers. I did not want to frighten my readers with such 'impossible' ideas. But progress has caught up with me; I should have had more confidence and left it in.
In the interim there have been Russian and American experiments whose ultimate aim is to put this idea into practice, even though it sounds like a science-fiction project today. Professor Carl Sagan of Harvard and Professor Dmitri Martinov of the Sternberg Institute in Moscow are both doing research work along the same lines. They want to conquer Venus for mankind—Venus, whose distance from the earth varies between 26,000,000 miles (inferior conjunction) and 160,625,000 miles (superior conjunction).
For research in the laboratory they have at their disposal 'reconnaissance reports' from the Russian Venus sondes and the American Mariner. On 6 June, 1969, TASS gave the surface temperature of Venus as varying between 400° and 530° C. This agrees approximately with the 1967 reports of the American Mariner V, which radioed back to its ground station a temperature of 480° C and an atmospheric pressure of 50 to 70. The Russians also received details from the sondes which had made soft landings. According to them, the Venusian atmosphere has a carbon dioxide content of 93 to 97%, while nitrogen makes up 2 to 5% and oxygen apparently only accounts for 0-4%. At a pressure of barely 1 atmosphere the measuring apparatus registered a water content of only 4 to 11 milligrams per litre.
These data are valuable working material. On the basis of them both Martinov and Sagan made plans for opening up the morning and evening star biologically. Carl Sagan published his ideas in the scientific periodical Science, which has the reputation of only publishing contributions that have been thoroughly examined and have stood up to strict scientific scrutiny.
Sagan thinks that in the near future—he is speaking of a few decades—space-ships with big cargo holds will unload thousands of tons of blue algae into the Venusian atmosphere, i.e. 'blow' them towards the surface of Venus. Blue algae stay alive even at high temperatures, but reduce the high proportion of carbon dioxide by their metabolism. Owing to this steady reduction of carbon dioxide the surface temperature would gradually fall and finally sink below 100° C. Blue algae would then cause the same chemical reaction as once took place in the 'primitive soup' of our earth. With the help of light and water carbon dioxide particles could be transformed into oxygen. But once the blue algae had lowered the temperature below 100° C, a rain like the Flood would fall on Venus. Light, oxygen and water would then provide the prerequisites for the first primitive life.
Since scientists have already thought of evacuating mankind to another planet, they have also planned protective measures for we sensitive delicate creatures. In the second phase of their colonisation of Venus chemicals would be sprayed to destroy micro-organisms that might
One day in the not too distant future the long journey back to the stars will start from our planet, and probably in spherical space-craft, because the sphere is the most natural of all shapes for the flight into the universe.
-----------------------------
6 - The Science-Fiction Of Yesterday Is Tomorrow's Reality
In Chariots of the Gods? I wrote a chapter in which I predicted a mass exodus of people from our planet to another heavenly body. I thought that this fantastic idea of mine was one way of easing the murderous population explosion, from which there seems to be no escape. In the end I cut this vision of the future out of my manuscript before it went to the printers. I did not want to frighten my readers with such 'impossible' ideas. But progress has caught up with me; I should have had more confidence and left it in.
In the interim there have been Russian and American experiments whose ultimate aim is to put this idea into practice, even though it sounds like a science-fiction project today. Professor Carl Sagan of Harvard and Professor Dmitri Martinov of the Sternberg Institute in Moscow are both doing research work along the same lines. They want to conquer Venus for mankind—Venus, whose distance from the earth varies between 26,000,000 miles (inferior conjunction) and 160,625,000 miles (superior conjunction).
For research in the laboratory they have at their disposal 'reconnaissance reports' from the Russian Venus sondes and the American Mariner. On 6 June, 1969, TASS gave the surface temperature of Venus as varying between 400° and 530° C. This agrees approximately with the 1967 reports of the American Mariner V, which radioed back to its ground station a temperature of 480° C and an atmospheric pressure of 50 to 70. The Russians also received details from the sondes which had made soft landings. According to them, the Venusian atmosphere has a carbon dioxide content of 93 to 97%, while nitrogen makes up 2 to 5% and oxygen apparently only accounts for 0-4%. At a pressure of barely 1 atmosphere the measuring apparatus registered a water content of only 4 to 11 milligrams per litre.
These data are valuable working material. On the basis of them both Martinov and Sagan made plans for opening up the morning and evening star biologically. Carl Sagan published his ideas in the scientific periodical Science, which has the reputation of only publishing contributions that have been thoroughly examined and have stood up to strict scientific scrutiny.
Sagan thinks that in the near future—he is speaking of a few decades—space-ships with big cargo holds will unload thousands of tons of blue algae into the Venusian atmosphere, i.e. 'blow' them towards the surface of Venus. Blue algae stay alive even at high temperatures, but reduce the high proportion of carbon dioxide by their metabolism. Owing to this steady reduction of carbon dioxide the surface temperature would gradually fall and finally sink below 100° C. Blue algae would then cause the same chemical reaction as once took place in the 'primitive soup' of our earth. With the help of light and water carbon dioxide particles could be transformed into oxygen. But once the blue algae had lowered the temperature below 100° C, a rain like the Flood would fall on Venus. Light, oxygen and water would then provide the prerequisites for the first primitive life.
Since scientists have already thought of evacuating mankind to another planet, they have also planned protective measures for we sensitive delicate creatures. In the second phase of their colonisation of Venus chemicals would be sprayed to destroy micro-organisms that might
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